


Left Behind

by Katharos



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-24
Updated: 2009-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-05 04:12:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/37687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katharos/pseuds/Katharos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aang slept through a hundred years but others had to take the long way round, and one betrayal always leads to another.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Left Behind

When the supply of clay dried up, Kuzon knew it was the beginning of the end. Their clay came from the finest beds of the earth kingdom, drawn up and purified by earth-benders – and of course they wouldn't trade with a nation that had declared unprovoked war on them.

Earth provided the clay but it was firebenders who fired the pots and vases, who created designs and patterns in the glaze that were praised to the corners of all four nations. It was a centuries old skill, justly honoured, and Kuzon remembered the fierce burning pride he had felt the day his master had accepted him, remembered when his apprentice's sash had earned him a pleased welcome in every shop in the city. But that was before the Fire Lord's war began, and the propaganda machine began rolling.

Now even his neighbours, who had boasted of him when he had been apprenticed, sent him dark looks on the streets and muttered imprecating things about a strong young fire bender who _didn't_ join the army, who _didn't_ fight to achieve the Nation's glorious, manifest destiny, who instead preferred to play in the mud like a child. A useless past time. A disgraceful boy compared to the noble youths in their smart uniforms who paraded through the city on their way to the front.

The words of the recruiting posters in their mouths.

His elder sister had listened, and gone, and died, leaving a young son for Kuzon to support along with his little brother and their aging parents. Rationing was tightening every day, and the families of army Firebenders received special benefits, after all.

Pain and regret and futile anger were a tight fist around his heart the day he left the shop for the last time, and guilt bitter in his mouth for his master's drawn face, as yet another apprentice spoke painful words of regret and gratitude and leave taking.

_You were my best,_ his master said softly as he turned to go, and it was both the blow and the gift that forced his tears as he hurried away. Like a thief.

He knew what he had to do.

But he paused on the Southern wall on his way to the recruitment centre, papers clenched tight in his fist, and stared out past the training camps that choked the city, bitterness a beating thing in his chest.

_Aang,_ he asked silently, _Avatar, where are you?_

Then he had to turn away, to go and swear his life to the service of a man who had betrayed and destroyed everything Kuzon loved.


End file.
